Snowstorm, Writer's Block, and Research

So it's looking like 30 below here in Indy which is apparently the coldest it's been in a few years.  Not to mention the 15 inches of snow out back.  I like to consider it all research as it is the basis for book #2.  But basically it's two children, a cranky husband, and an obnoxious puppy cramped in way too small of a space with no chance of getting out.  Lucky for me I am feeling crappy so I got to sit and write for most of the day.  It felt good to get a chapter done in pretty much a day.

Writing so much was especially helpful due to my little bout of writer's block.  I have all kinds of ideas when I'm laying in bed trying to sleep and then I wake up and poof, they're gone.  So I did something different which was actually kind of fun.  I did some backstory work which I actually found pretty fun because I got to make up character names and places, I drew a very terrible and crude map, and outlined the entire rest of the novel.  It helped, so I think.  I am so excited now about moving forward and revising and querying it's hard to sit and just plug out those last couple of chapters.  Which now that I've hammered out the outline is 6 chapters left to go.

And if you happened to be following the story, here is my very crude map.  And a little hint for the novelization, the heroine will be named Mirea.